How to Turn Your Staff into a Cohesive Team Unit
In this lagging economy, with layoffs looming in the horizon, it’s not that surprising that team morale is low. If your employees are not working as a team, or have a low morale, it follows that your productivity will be low as well. Here are some tips to turn your employees into a team at the office. Not only will your work output increase, but your employees will be happier to come to work each day. As a supervisor, it is your job to build a successful team.
1.Be willing to help out. It is very important as you merge your employees together as a cohesive unit that you understand each individual’s strengths. If one of your employees is lacking skills in an area, encourage others to help that individual out. This will allow the second member to show leadership skills, and the first individual to learn a new skill, which will help the team grow continually stronger.
2. Give clear goals. It is important for team morale to be very specific about your goals and hopes for your team. Giving them specific things to work towards, and specific timelines to meet will help them strive to work together to achieve excellence.
3. Give credit. It is a great idea to show appreciation for your individual employees. Start a blog or a newsletter and once a month honor someone for their specific contributions to the group. Acknowledgement will help that individual feel good about their hard work, and will push the other team members to achieve the same sorts of goals. You can also reward your office team as a whole when they meet a large goal or work together in an extremely successful manner.
4. Open the lines of communication. Your employees need to feel that they can come to you with problems or with issues that arise. Also, encourage your employees to communicate with each other often. One popular way to encourage this is by employing an open office model of seating. Instead of cubicles, in this case the walls are removed so that people can more easily work together and collaborate.
5. Be open to suggestions. Encourage your team to come to you with thoughts or ideas on how to make your office an even more productive working environment. Have brainstorming sessions on a topic and allow everyone in the office to feel like their input is valued and heard.
6. Participate in team building exercises. Team building retreats, ropes courses, or discussion exercises, allow your employees to bond on a personal as well as a professional level. By showing them that they have the literal support of everyone in the office, it gives them the ability to put their ideas out there without fear of being shot down. They also will know that they can rely on you or the other office members to support them if they need assistance.
Follow all these steps and your office of individuals will be well on their way to becoming an excellent working team!
